Senior AI Engineer (Forward Deployed) (m/f/d)

kigroup; Köln; Vor Ort; EUR 90.000 - 150.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

KI performance is seeking a Senior AI Engineer (Forward Deployed) to lead hands-on AI delivery in complex customer environments in Köln. You will design and implement NLP, LLM, and speech-enabled solutions, with a strong focus on production-grade software and Azure integrations.

You will own end-to-end development, collaboration with customers and engineering managers, and ensure reliable, scalable AI deployments with guardrails and monitoring.

Qualifikationen

• Very senior hands-on AI engineer with applied AI and software engineering experience.
• Strong AI-first mindset and judgment on AI usage, especially LLMs.
• Ownership mentality and delivery focus.
• Proficient with Git and CI/CD in Azure DevOps, GitHub, or GitLab.
• Production mindset: reliability, observability, security, and cost awareness.
• German business-level and English proficiency if based in Germany/Portugal English.

Aufgaben

• Understand and structure business processes, decision logic, and data relationships.
• Challenge assumptions and refine requirements with customers and stakeholders.
• Translate domain needs into clear, implementable technical solutions.
• Design and implement AI systems with NLP, LLMs, and speech models.
• Build agentic workflows, orchestration layers, tool integrations, and decision logic.
• Develop end-to-end solution flows that combine AI with backend and platform components.
• Apply LLM patterns such as tool calling, schema validation, retries, fallbacks, and guardrails.
• Integrate AI services into enterprise environments and production systems.
• Actively implement core application and integration logic in Python.
• Maintain testable, production-ready software with modern engineering practices.

Kenntnisse

NLP

LLMs

Speech models

Python

FastAPI

Async IO

CI/CD

Azure

Tool calling

Guardrails

Tools

Databricks

Azure DevOps

GitHub/GitLab

Pydantic

Jobbeschreibung

Become our new Senior AI Engineer (Forward Deployed) (m/f/d)

As a Senior AI Engineer (Forward Deployed), you will lead the hands-on implementation of AI-driven solutions in complex customer environments.

You combine deep expertise in NLP, LLMs, and speech technologies with strong software engineering skills to build robust, scalable, and production-ready systems. Working closely with customers and internal teams, you translate business processes, decision logic, and data flows into real-world AI applications - from intelligent assistants and speech-enabled systems to enterprise-grade integrations on Azure.

This is a hands-on, AI-first, delivery-focused role with strong ownership of technical quality, scalability, and operational excellence.

Your Responsibilities

Understand the Domain

• Analyze and structure business processes, decision logic, and data relationships.

• Challenge assumptions and refine requirements together with customers and stakeholders.

• Translate complex domain needs into clear, implementable technical solutions.

Build AI Solutions End-to-End

• Design and implement AI systems with a strong focus on NLP, LLMs, and speech models.

• Build agentic workflows, orchestration layers, tool integrations, and decision logic.

• Develop end-to-end solution flows that combine AI capabilities with backend and platform components.

• Apply structured LLM patterns such as tool calling, schema-validated outputs, retries, fallbacks, and guardrails.

• Integrate AI services into enterprise environments and production systems.

Own Software Engineering Quality

• Actively implement core application and integration logic - this is not a design-only role.

• Build maintainable, testable, and production-ready software in Python.

• Use modern engineering practices to ensure reliability, observability, security, and cost awareness.

• Improve development speed and quality through automation, testing, and AI-assisted engineering workflows.

Deliver in Customer Environments

• Work directly with customers in workshops, implementation sessions, and delivery phases.

• Drive technical solutioning together with Engineering Managers, Cloud AI Architects, and QA.

• Contribute to architecture decisions while maintaining a strong execution mindset.

• Take ownership of successful deployment and integration in real-world environments.

What We’re Looking For

Core Profile

• Very senior, hands-on engineer with strong experience in applied AI and software engineering.

• Strong AI-first mindset, with sound judgment on when AI - and especially LLMs - should or should not be used.

• Strong ownership mentality and delivery focus.

• Solid engineering practices with Git and CI/CD (Azure DevOps, GitHub, or GitLab).

• Production mindset: reliability, observability, security, and cost control.

• For candidate based in Germany - business-level German and English. For Candidate based in Portugal - Business-level English

AI / Applied ML Expertise

• Strong hands-on experience with NLP, LLMs, and speech models.

• Experience building production-grade solutions using LLMs, including structured orchestration, tool calling, and schema validation.

• Experience designing agent-based or multi-agent systems.

• Ability to implement retries, fallbacks, guardrails, and monitoring for AI systems.

• Strong understanding of the practical trade-offs of latency, quality, cost, and reliability in AI applications.

Software Engineering & Integration

• Excellent Python skills.

• Strong experience with parallel and asynchronous programming.

• Experience with modern Python frameworks and tooling, ideally including FastAPI, async IO, and Pydantic.

• Experience building production APIs and integrations, including error handling, retries, timeouts, and logging.

• Ability to design clear service contracts and integrate multiple internal and external systems.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including clean architecture, testing, and maintainability.

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Strong understanding of infrastructure and deployment patterns on Azure.

• Experience operating solutions in enterprise Azure environments, including topics such as Managed Identity, Key Vault, monitoring, and basic networking.

• Experience with scalable deployment and integration of AI workloads in cloud environments.

• Experience with Databricks is a plus.

System Thinking

• Ability to design end-to-end AI solution architectures, including orchestration, session/state handling, and system boundaries.

• Thinks beyond models: understands platform constraints, integration challenges, and operational requirements.

• Considers latency, resilience, observability, and tool-call minimization from day one.

Why Join Us?

• Exciting AI projects - work with cutting-edge technologies across Azure, OpenAI, Databricks, and more.

• High-performance culture - we are looking for doers who want to create real impact.

• Fast learning and career growth - benefit from top-tier training, certificates, and hands-on exposure to advanced AI delivery.

• Innovative company culture - we value hands-on execution, team spirit, and AI-driven excellence.

• Broad ecosystem - we work closely with partners, startups, and a strong network across the AI and cloud landscape.

About KI performance

We are transforming the way companies work with data, preparing them for the future of AI. With our expertise in developing data platforms and AI-powered solutions, we create measurable value - always with a clear focus on business and strategy. Our projects range from global data platforms to innovative Gen AI applications, making a direct impact on the success of leading DAX companies. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies, we set new standards in digital transformation and work closely with Microsoft, Databricks, and our KI group ecosystem to develop sustainable and future-proof solutions.

Our company culture is shaped by forward-thinking, curious, and open-minded individuals who actively drive digital change. To maintain this dynamic environment, we place great importance on diversity, innovation, and strong team collaboration. If you’d like to learn more about our culture and benefits, feel free to visit our careers page.